On Mondays, I take a look at schedules from yesteryear. Here's a look at Sundays in the 1990-91 season!
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ABC
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7:00
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8:00
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8:30
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9:00
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10:00
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Sep
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Life Goes On
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America’s Funniest Home Videos
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America’s Funniest People
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Sunday Night Movie
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Oct
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Nov
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Dec
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Jan
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Feb
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Mar
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Apr
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May
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ABC found a monster success in 1989-90 on Sunday nights with midseason addition
America's Funniest Home Videos hosted by Bob Saget. The show wasn't a flash in the pan either as it continued to be a big ratings winner in 1990-91. They doubled down on that success by adding another reality comedy show hosted by a
Full House star. Saget's co-star Dave Coulier hosted
America's Funniest People along with Arleen Sorkin. Whereas
Videos was more about accidental mishaps caught on video,
People featured everyday people trying to be funny. The series did almost as well as
Videos in the ratings and was the top rated new show of 1990-91. To start the night,
Life Goes On returned to 7pm. The show wasn't a strong ratings performer but it had its fans and kept the lights on for ABC at a difficult hour. A movie continued at 9pm and was behind the CBS movie but slightly ahead of the NBC movie.
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CBS
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7:00
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8:00
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9:00
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10:00
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Sep
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60 Minutes
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Murder, She Wrote
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Sunday Night Movie
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Oct
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Nov
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Dec
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Jan
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Feb
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Mar
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Apr
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May
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Despite ABC having a hugely successful hour, CBS still ruled Sunday night overall. 60 Minutes had one of its strongest seasons ever, crawling all the way up to #2 in the ratings. It was followed by Murder, She Wrote which was still strong (not a lot of crossover with the ABC comedy competition). However, Angela Lansbury continued to make rumblings that she wanted to leave the show before renegotiating her contract again in March 1991. She appeared in 17 episodes in 1990-91, up from 13 the previous season. The Sunday Night Movie closed the night and was the strongest movie on the big three networks.
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NBC
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7:00
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8:00
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8:30
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9:00
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10:00
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Sep
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Hull High
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Lifestories
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Sunday Night Movie
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Oct
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Nov
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Various Programs
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Dec
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Various Programs
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Jan
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Real Life with Jane Pauley
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Expose
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Feb
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Sunday Best
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Mar
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Various Programs
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Expose
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Real Life with Jane Pauley
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Apr
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May
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The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage
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While ABC and CBS were finding success on Sundays and FOX had a foothold on the night, NBC was floundering. They rebooted the first two hours of the night to start the 1990-91 season with two new dramas.
Hull High was one of many high school themed series to hit the air in 1990 but one of the only dramas. The show tried its best to be edgy with music infused in the show (like
Cop Rock). The music, mostly hip hop and rap at least seemed a little less out of place here than on ABC's cop show. Nevertheless, the show was yanked off the schedule just a few weeks into the season and cancelled after airing a couple more episodes during the doldrum TV days around Christmas and New Year's. At 8pm was
Lifestories, a medical anthology drama that depicted real life health events with Robert Prosky as a narrator and actors carrying out the scenes. The unusual twist on the medical genre lasted a little bit longer than
Hull High before being yanked, but not much. It was also gone before the New Year. In January, NBC went the unscripted route with the return of summer newsmagazine
Real Life with Jane Pauley and the new docuseries
Expose. Both shows were not big hits but improvements on Sunday night and they did get renewed. There was a brief addition to the unscripted lineup in February with
Sunday Best, a comedy show that claimed to show funny moments in past and present TV but seemed to skew heavily towards NBC. It lasted just a couple weeks in February and it was back to various specials (mostly blooper ones) until
The 100 Lives of Black Jack Savage moved over to the night from Friday at the very end of the season.
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FOX
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7:00
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7:30
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8:00
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8:30
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9:00
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9:30
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10:00
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Sep
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True Colors
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Parker Lewis Can’t Lose
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In Living Color
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Get A Life
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Married With Children
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Good Grief
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Against the Law
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Oct
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Nov
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Dec
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Comic Strip Live
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Jan
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Feb
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Various Programs
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Mar
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Apr
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Top of the Heap
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May
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The Sunday Comics
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FOX had moved
The Simpsons to their start-up on Thursday nights but their flagship Sunday night still had a lot of activity with five new shows added to the lineup in the fall, three of which did well enough to get renewed. A new hour of comedies aired in the 7pm hour. First up was
True Colors, a sitcom centering on interracial marriage and blended family, which was pretty unusual for the time. The series starred Frankie Faison and Stephanie Faracy and featured Nancy Walker in her final TV role. It was followed by
Parker Lewis Can't Lose, one of the many school/teen themed shows appearing on TV in Fall 1990. This was one of the more successful ones though. It was clearly inspired by
Ferris Bueller's Day Off even though there was an actual
Ferris adaptation airing on NBC. Airing on FOX with lower expectations helped matters but it also received better reviews. Both the new sitcoms in the hour were renewed for a second season.
In Living Color moved to Sundays to take over the 8pm anchor oslot after a successful midseason start. It was FOX's third highest rated show behind flagships
The Simpsons and
Married... with Children though it received a significant amount of criticism for its content. At 8:30pm was
Get A Life, a sitcom starring Chris Elliott as a 30 year old paperboy living with his parents. The show featured lots of surreal elements and was also renewed for a second season.
Married... with Children continued at 9pm as a Sunday staple. At 9:30pm was
Good Grief, a comedy set at a funeral home and starring Howie Mandel and Wendy Schaal. There were two new sitcoms having to do with funeral homes in the Fall of 1990 with this one and NBC's
The Fanelli Boys. Of the four new sitcoms premiering on FOX Sundays in Fall 1990, this was the only one to not make it. It was cancelled at midseason to make room for
Top of the Heap, a
Married... with Children spinoff focused on two minor characters played by Joseph Bologna and a young Matt LeBlanc. They played a father and son trying to get rich. The show started decently in the ratings thanks to interest from the
Married crowd, but didn't make it past the short spring run. However, some characters returned for a rebooted version in 1992 called
Vinnie & Bobby. Check back Wednesday for a One Season Wonder post on
Top of the Heap! 10pm briefly belonged to Boston-set legal drama
Against the Law before it moved to Fridays while two different stand-up comedy series took over the 10pm hour for the rest of the season.
Top Rated Sunday Show of 1990-91: 60 Minutes (#2)
Lowest Rated Sunday Show of 1990-91: Against the Law (#131)
What would I have watched on Sundays in 1990-91:
Life Goes On and I probably would have sampled Hull High. I might have given the two 7pm hour comedies on FOX a whirl and maybe even Get A Life though I'm not a big Chris Elliott fan.
Tomorrow: Top 10 Bewitched Characters
Next Tuesday: A look at Mondays in the 1991-92 season!
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